Bridgeton Midget Football celebrates 55 years

BRIDGETON — At least a few veterans of the first ever midget football game here made it to the start of Bridgeton Midget Football League’s (BMFL) 55-year anniversary celebration Thursday night.

That inaugural game was played Oct. 21, 1955. And on the very anniversary, the current BMFL players and cheerleaders took the torch in a short parade along the road from just outside Jim Hursey Stadium to Salvy Blandino Field.

The parade began an extended weekend of events including a Beef and Beverage tonight and a BMFL Alumni game Saturday.

Parents, kids and other locals lined the roadway alongside the high school stadium and waved as the teams and cheerleaders rode by.

They blew plastic kazoo-like noisemakers decked with green or gold pom-poms as a near-full harvest moon shone overhead and a gentle breeze brought a mild chill.

90-year-old Maurice Higbee, a BMFL member since 1957, led the way as the parade’s grand marshal. Then came League Alumni, followed by a group of cheerleaders of all age groups.

The teams came on trailers or on the backs of tow trucks - the Big John’s Pizza Bulls, the Joyce’s Nursery Whips, the Cumberland Dairy Packers and the 5th Ward Athletic Association Gems.

Coaches accompanied their teams on the ride, and the Gems were joined by Mayor Albert Kelly.

Attendees filled the bleachers to the right of the concession stands and press box facing the field. Others stood in the concession area or near the sidelines.

Green and gold balloons bobbed in the breeze while held by children or tied to the stands.

Each BMFL cheerleading squad performed a routine for the crowd before speakers recounted more than a half-century of games, faces, deeds and personalities and urged the latest class of members to continue the tradition of a formidable program.

League president Doug Buirch recalled that the group defied expectations to remain a real force influencing local youth.

“A few years ago, we were told BMFL was going to die,” he said. But the crowd of members and supporters in the stands, he said, showed it’s still going strong.

And the volunteers returning to coordinate and run games and events make it possible.

“We have a tight-knit core here that works together well,” Buirch said. “I thank them from the bottom of my heart for what they do here.”

Buirch, who started with the BMFL in 1974, encouraged players and cheerleaders to volunteer even after their playing days, as did other longtime members.

“If you’re 18 years old, you have nothing to do, you’re out of work, this is where you should come and help out, serve the community,” Buirch said.

“This is one of the reasons I ran for mayor,” Kelly remarked in his own speech, “so that I could be a part of things like this.”

The players, cheerleaders and volunteers “make the city look good,” he said.

“Keep on representing the city well, winning championships and putting Bridgeton on the map,” Kelly continued.

Cheerleader alumnus and current city parks and recreation director Melissa Hemple also asked attendees to keep up their involvement.

“I wouldn’t change a day of it,” she said of her BMFL activities. “And I hope you feel the same and will come back to volunteer.”

Bridgeton High School athletic director Joe Blandino, son of the midget football field’s namesake, remembered playing in the League here in the early 1960s.

Salvy Blandino was a founding member and served as president for 30 years.

“This has always been a family organization, and I can see that it’s still a family organization,” his son said.

And for keeping the program going beyond a half-century, Blandino said to participants, “thank you for keeping my father’s dream alive.”

A bit later, Buirch rose to make a special presentation and one that Kelly had ironically foreshadowed.

The mayor had said during his speech that, despite being a Bridgeton native, he’d never gotten to play midget football here.

Buirch gave him a Gems jersey, # 1, with “Kelly” on the back. Heeding the crowd, the mayor put on the jersey there at the podium, on the field, to loud cheers.